This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, July 19th.   In Canadian access news, records reveal the Alberta Government literally following lists of most banned books in the United States to create their own book bans. Plus there’s evidence of shortfalls in Indigenous procurement and failures in emergency response.  Canadian Privacy and whistleblower news […]

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, July 12th.   We’re heading into the full summer season here, and while you’re hopefully enjoying the sun where you are, we’ll start with the access to information and privacy scans across Canada. There are some troubling environmental impacts as one oil company breaks a deal and […]

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, July 5th.   While there are national holidays in Canada and south of the border this past week, there’s still lots to consider in the news. We’ll start with a few Canadian stories intersecting privacy including an Ontario data breach, the Government of the Northwest Territories making […]

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, June 28th.   We have updates on Bill C-2 and Bill C-4 as the House of Commons rises for the summer.  We’ll have our regular scan across the country with a surprising group of stories in Alberta echoing influences from south of the border—including moves by the […]

Canada’s federal C-2 Strong Borders Act is a sweeping and controversial bill that is currently moving through Parliament. The bill includes ‘lawful access’ provisions, unrelated to borders, that expand state powers to access personal information held by electronic service providers. This is not the first time that lawful access powers have been proposed, and privacy […]

In this Commentary, we discuss Bill C-4, titled An Act respecting certain affordability measures for Canadians and another measure. That “other measure” is a series of amendments to the Canada Election Act creating serious impacts on people and their personal information. FIPA is conducting its first joint podcast with Michael Geist and The Law Bytes Podcast.  Join me, FIPA Executive Director […]

Updated 2025.06.16 Summary: Key Concerns: Potential Consequences: Recommendations: Supporting References Expanded Reading This material was sent to Members of Parliament and Members of the Standing Committee on Finance (FINA).

Updated 2025.06.16 Subject: Urgent Appeal – Withdraw Part 4 from Bill C-4 We are writing on behalf of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association with an urgent appeal regarding Bill C-4, the Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act. We recognize and respect your commitment to affordability. But Part 4 of this Bill […]

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, June 14th.   We’ve got stories from across the country shaped by access to information—from national defense funding to local integrity issues, wildfire preparedness, and controversial provincial actions.  We’ll follow that with a scan of cybersecurity incidents, data breaches, and surveillance concerns that are hitting public institutions […]

Updated 2025.06.12 Dear Minister Champagne,  We call on you to withdraw the portions of the Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act, Bill C-4, that amend the Canada Elections Act. The provisions of the Bill are a serious threat to Canadians’ privacy rights.   Provisions in Bill C-4 Part 4 grant federal political parties sweeping […]

Liberal government’s troubling approach to privacy revealed in new legislation Published: 2025.06.10 Two federal bills, one about borders and one about affordability, contain buried provisions that will erode Canadians’ privacy rights. June started out as a busy legislative month for the federal government, and two freshly-introduced bills are generating concerns for privacy advocates across the […]

Bill C-4 An Act respecting certain affordability measures for Canadians and another measure was introduced on June 5th 2025. This Finance bill’s other measure is a series of amendments to the Canada Election Act in Part 4. Part 4 of Bill C-4 is a direct attack on the privacy of Canadians. It gives federal political […]